Hey everyone, happy Friday and time for an update. Nothing much to say but enjoy the suspension that had you waiting from last week.
Chapter 12: Legend of the Past Rider
Crwhack... Crwhack...
The sunny warm morning broke through the clouds as the caretaker of the Ignicia Village cemetery was out splitting firewood and felt the sun bake his neck. The sun may feel warm, but the small autumn chill wasn't. Small breezes swayed across the graveyard to his long greasy grey hair. It even flutter the petals of the cherry blossom trees to decorate the hallow grounds in a salmon pink hue. Fall was here no doubt. The caretaker felt his facial muscles tug a small smile as he enjoyed the cool weather in Ignicia Village as it felt soothing and calm for one to live alone; except for the gravestones he didn't care. He turned away from the morning sun to return to his chores and grabbed a fresh log to rest on the block, wield his axe over his head, and used the momentum to bring the sharpened wedge in the center.
Crwhack!
The caretaker reached down to the splintering wood with a rough callous hand and slowly wretched the axe head free and turned his head to sound of dried leaves crunching underneath. He had to smirk without looking at who it was and looked over his shoulders to the sight of Kai walking up with his hands dug into the pockets of his new leather jacket. His smirk was still plastered as he stood up and set his blade down. "Figure you be back, Bonehead." he laughed to turn back to raise his axe and whacked it down to split the log completely.
Kai rolled his light chocolate brown eyes as he came up to him. The rest of the night was just awful to him after he escaped from Ninjago City and kept wondering about Laurie and his family knowing the truth. In fact, everybody in Ninjago knew him by now as a killer on the loose. He figured he's the top news for a wanted murderer on which he never done and will be hunted down no matter how much effort they'll use. Just how was he going adjust to this all. "Well they know about me now." he finally said to break the utter silence and pinched the bridge of his nose to ponder.
The caretaker grabbed a fresh log to rest it on the block and brought the log down to split a clean cut. "Who's that?" he wondered while grabbing another log; obviously knowing the answer.
"Everyone does." Kai stated directly. "My family. The cops. And possibly everywhere in Ninjago." He started to pace around. "I'm basically the top headlines for being a wanted criminal for something I never done." He then stopped. "What? You don't watch TV? What's the matter with you?" The caretaker looked over his shoulders to laugh a little and split his fifth log and the fire ninja rolled his eyes. "Is this ever going to end for me?" he asked.
"It'll end if you can catch him." the caretaker replied and freed his axe.
Kai sighed as that'll be a challenge he can't do alone. Even if he was against supernatural beings when he's one as well at night. But still why him? What does Blackheart want from this world? What's he seeking to be dear to him? Kai couldn't comprehend one bit of it. "What's really going on?" he demanded to know more of his deal.
The caretaker had had his axe held high but turned to the red ninja and slammed it into the chopping bloke and grabbed his spade shovel. Kai had to only why he had favored that shovel for a reason. "Follow me." he said while motioning him to follow. Kai looked at him skeptically as he followed him through the rows of weathered gravestones and mausoleums until they stopped at a gravestone. Through the weather damage, the Ninja of Fire could easily read the name etched into the stone and turned to the caretaker with notched brow raises as he leaned onto the spade handle. "Carter Slate." he uttered.
"Legend has it he was once a Ranger." he began to tell the tale. "A man of honor. But he got greedy. Found himself locked up, waiting for the gallows." He shifted around to have the shovel resting in both hands. "One night, Samukai came to him. Offering him freedom and Slate made the deal. He ended up as a Ghost Rider." He shifted his eyes toward Kai. "Like you."
Kai stared at the stone with the Ranger's name and could imagine him alive and running in the olden times of Ninjago like he read in history books at middle school before. But now he could see Samukai making the deal with Slate and become the Ghost Rider before him. "So what does he have to do with this?" he pried.
"Remember that contract Samukai made?" the caretaker asked to refresh Kai's memory yesterday. "With the people of San Anumlia?" He averted his grey eyes to receive a slight nod from him. "The story goes that Slate was sent to collect the souls. But what he found was so evil, that he took the contract and rode off."
"He stole it then." Kai guessed.
"Kept Samukai from getting his hands on it. Some say he was buried with it."
"Was he?" the fire ninja pried.
"I don't know." the caretaker admitted. He then looked away to look down at Kai's height from being a bit taller than him. "But what I do know is that Blackheart is coming, and he'll do anything to get it. That's why it is important for you to stay away from friends and family. Anyone he can use against you, because he will. Only you alone can stop him. Your ninja friends won't help you on this."
Kai felt a wave of realization wash over him to what he meant. If his friends can't help him fight Blackheart, they'll be in danger. His sister, brothers, and even Laurie. But would they want to see him again for being what he was last night? He didn't care though, his family was in danger. "No." he gasped quietly and quickly ran off to hop onto his motorcycle, which he realized wasn't his to begin with, and kick-started it to drive off. He gazed at the sun and knew he was gonna reach Ninjago City by nightfall, but it wasn't gonna stop him. He'll reach them before Blackheart does.
Nervousness. And also worriness. Both felt the same, but that's how the wind ninja felt. Laurie had been pacing nervously aroud the Destiny Bounty's bridge while the others were gazing around the locations in the computerized map to search for Kai's whereabouts. She was now convinced from what the fire ninja has revealed to her and the others now. They know that it was Kai no matter what. A skeleton that can summon fire. Has he been like this his entire life? No, Nya would've known that. But still. "Come on, guys." she blurted out. "Where's Kai? We have to find him."
The other male ninjas and samurai turned their heads to meet their gaze with the frantic girl. They had to shrug their shoulders. They want to find their elemental brother, as Nya wanted too desperately, but couldn't find any leads of him. "We're doing our best, Laurie." said Zane, dark blue eyes focused to determination. "My falcon is searching everywhere in Ninjago while we're doing our best to find any turn ups of our brothers. Be patient."
Laurie felt anger build up and wanted to walk up to the ice ninja and slap him across the face for telling her to be patient when she's anixous to find Kai and know more of him, but instead gave him a hard stare. Jay and the others noticed the glare, but decided to not bother about it. "I'm still trying to put this together." the lightning ninja said to have eyes directed on him. "How in the world is Kai a freakin' skeleton when he's human already!? It's not like you're human and all of a sudden a skeleton that's on fire! That's like impossible, right!?" He kept turning his head and turned to a worry looking Nya. "Nya, did you know anything of Kai like this?" he wondered about the siblings. "Anything?"
Nya lifted her head to meet her light brown eyes with Jay's hazel eyes and shook her head. She never knew anything of her brother being able to transform into a skeleton until witnessing everything last night. She felt worried and scared to believe this and had had an unrestful night like the others have to have small purple bags under her eyes. She sighed and looked away and stare away from the others. "I never knew anything of Kai being able to do this." she said quietly. "I know my brother, but I can't think that it's really him. I don't know what to think right now."
The Ninja stared at the samurai with pity and had to agree with her. The sky was slowly faing to have the colors of red, orange, and yellow with darkness overlapping, and they can't find any leads of the fire ninja as the day has gone by. They don't know what to think if it was him or not, but after the events last night it had to be him. Cole sighed and walked up to the girl to lay a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "We know this is hard to believe and he's your brother." he spoke comfortly as he could. "But this is something we must figure out to see if it's him."
"And if it's not Kai," Lloyd chirped in as he sat on the mahogeny table while swinging his legs. "Then what?"
"Simple Pipsqueak," Jay rebutted in. "If it's a normal Skulkin warrior, we beat it to dust and send it back to the Underworld." He turned to face as he felt nervous to receive a hard stare from the earth ninja and Nya. "He-he." he gulped a little.
The black ninja unstitched his bushy brows and turned back to the girl. "As I was saying, beside Jay's remark,-"
"Hey!" the blue ninja exclaimed.
"Once we find Kai, we'll seek the answers we need from him." Cole continued. "But this may take awhile. Just wish we had some answers about the skeletons." A sudden realization flashed in the Ninja of Earth's amber eyes and soon the others did and turned their attention toward Lucas. The water ninja gave them a quizzical look while raising his scarred brow and crossed his arms across his chest to lean against the table to be next to his cousin for a seat. "Lucas, you spent some of your life in the Underworld," Cole said. "Have you ever seen any skeletons like this before? Any kinds?"
Good question. The grey ninja had to agree. He used to live in the Underworld with his uncle, Lord Garmadon, at the age of ten and train as his apprentice. He seen all kinds of skeletons, including an old gatekeeper that was his friend, but he has never seen one that can control fire. He looked away to ponder more of the Underworld and shook his head. "I actually never seen anything like this before." he admitted. "I know I was surrounded by skeletons everyday, but never seen anything like this. Samukai-"
There was the sound of the door opening and all heads turned to face Cole's cousin, Dawn, at the door way. The girl felt nervous as she stared around with her green grey eyes while playing with her hands in the conjoined pocket of her yellow sweatshirt. They even noticed her yellow backpack sat by her feet. "I, uh, hope I'm not interrupting anything." she said quietly. "But I was coming by to say goodbye to Cole before I head back to Natura Village. I want to be back before my mother gets worried for me about the skeleton thing."
Cole smiled softly about his cousin's decision and started to walk over to her, but stopped as Lucas beat him to her. He was now taken by surprise to his move to give him a small hard stare. "You mean you're leaving?" Lucas said to her.
The raven-haired girl softly smiled to the water ninja to see him blush a light pink. Her eyes were soft as she wrapped her arms around him to a hug. Cole's amber eyes now went wide on the affection his cousin had on the water ninja. Does she...have a crush on him? "I thank you for showing me around and all, but I should head back home because I know my mother and little sister worry for me. Especially Cole. But I'll try and see you again, Stormy." and pecked his cheek lightly to leave him blushing beet red. She smiled and walked around the stunned grey ninja to her cousin and pulled him to a tight embrace. "Promise you visit us and come to Maddi's birthday." she whispered in his ear.
Cole smiled and wrapped his arms around her. "I promise I will." he promised. "Promise you give Maddi a cuddle from her favorite cousin." Dawn looked up to give him a sincere nod and heard a car horn below the ship. "There's your ride, you better get going." She nodded to hug him one last time, saying her goodbyes, and left while grabbing her backpack. The earth ninja walked his cousin leave off the Bounty and turned to the love struck water ninja. "Ahem." he coughed to grab his attention back.
Lucas remained still like he was hyponitized by a Hypnobrai and quickly recovered to shake his head and return normal and looked around puzzled. He now understood how Jay felt around Nya near Kai. "Uh... Where was I again?" he asked on his vague memory. He even felt stupid now.
"Uh... Samukai? Skeleton? Underworld? Kai!" Jay pointed each item off the list. "Does it sound familiar now, Lover-Boy?" He had to smirk since he was the new one experiencing love at first sight. "Or has all the water from your powers turn your brain to algae? Ha-ha!"
The grey ninja glared at Jay with his hazel grey eyes, but felt a hand resting on his shoulders and looked over to see his father shaking his head. He nodded back to avoid a fight. But he'll get him back for that. He began to jog back to where he was left off being interrupted. "Right... As I was saying," he continued while pacing around the bridge. "Samukai always kept to himself from Garmadon. We never knew what he was up to. He was even a powerful alchemist." He closed his eyes to think deeply of his past and had something. "Now I think about it, I remember reading a lesson from my tutor from Darkly's about legends of a skeleton like this and something about hidden elements." That slowly brought everyone's attention now. "I would need to look at my dad's books, but of course he would have them locked up." turning to his father.
Sensei Wu's grey eyes were closed as he stroked his long white beard and opened them to see his student's eyes were full of concern. He had to agree with their concern and adjusted his straw hat. "I know that you seek from my books and wonder why I have them locked up." he said. "They're dangerous to those seeking information, but apparently I don't have them in possession." The Ninja perked up on the news of theft that has happened behind their backs. "But I happen to know where they are. They're all cluttered up in the game room after Kai picked my lock. Seems like he was searching for what you all needed too."
The Ninja slowly relaxed to know that the books were safe and only Kai was the thief. But now that they know where they were, they can start searching for their information. Without hesistation, Laurie quickly ran out of the room to head inside for the ship with the others following after her to hear the floorboards groan to the combined weight to rush inside. The wind ninja gazed around the aged books littered in the game room and grabbed the nearest one to rest on her knees as she placed the leather bound book on the coffee table to begin searching. "What have you gotten yourself into, Kai?" she murmured to carefully browse with the others helping.
The sun had finally disappeared as the fire ninja slowly reached Ninjago City. The full moon rose high with the blazing lights of the skyscrapers soaring high into the sky. Kai came to a halt as he was nearing at the city and felt nervous and worried about entering within. He was a wanted criminal now and even at first sight of a teen with spiky hair will have him arrested. But still, his family was a target to a demon if he doesn't reach them first.
Without caring about the consequences, the burnet killed the engine of his motorcycle and pushed it over to a billboard and threw branches of a bush over it to hide the vehicle and stared at the city. He growled as he could feel Blackheart's presense in the distance and started running. His shadow casted along the pavement from the street lamps as he entered and quickly ducked himself into an alley as a police cruiser cruised by. He grumbled as this was harder that he anticipated. "Looks like the only way to reach Dareth's is stealth." he mumbled to himself and stepped out to continue to run through the large, energenic city.
He hoped to reach them on time.
Oh everyone is now in danger all thanks to Kai as a Ghost Rider. Hope he could make it on time to protect everyone from Blackheart or else. If not, then what? Find out next week and see what happens. Love it when I leave suspension as usual. XD I got nothing else to say but have a nice weekend and see you all next week for a new update. :)